The National Veterinary Institute, SVA, is a Swedish national authority that strives for good animal and human health, a good environment and sustainable food production. . The most important role of the National Veterinary Institute, SVA, is to align the activities towards contagious and other serious infectious diseases of animals that imply a threat to supplies of animal foodstuffs, that lead to losses for the production of animals, that concern pets, or involve diseases that can be transferred to humans, i.e., zoonoses. Diagnostic capacity for the most feared contagious animal diseases is available at SVA. At present about 25 control programmes are being conducted in cooperation with animal owner organisations and the relevant authorities. Research and Development is of the utmost importance for solving the tasks facing the SVA in both long-term and short-term perspectives. Interaction between routine diagnostics and research makes it possible to develop new products and technologies for diagnosing contagious diseases in animals. An example of product development at SVA is the field of animals, where results are obtained immediately on-site. SVA also carries the overall responsibility for the availability of veterinary vaccines in Sweden. As far as possible, we keep a complete assortment in stock.